Planning system robustness regarding voltage stability using a genetic algorithm based approach

Voltage stability is an important concern of power system managers not only in the net planning phase but also in operation. This issue has become especially critical in recent years due to the deregulation phenomenon because of new exploration policies complying a system operation closer to its security limits. In particular, voltage collapse distance may approach emergency values or, in the worst case, make the system collapse. As voltage profile is extremely dependent on reactive power compensation, most common approaches integrate both objectives in the operation setting phase, trying to optimize reactive power production taking voltage profile into consideration. In this paper, authors propose an evolutionary approach application to the same problem but in the planning phase. It is shown that the cooperative procedure of planning and preventive control provides better solutions that if one deals with these issues one at a time.